Paradise is Scarlet Red
by Aiko Isari
Summary: AU Post-Tower of Heaven. She's disappeared, not dead. He's sure of it. But is he right?
1. 1

_**A/N: **_Hello! So, I've never written _Fairy Tail_ before, but way back when I first read it, this idea just got stuck in my head. (There's an adoptable on my list for it if someone wants it.) and I just couldn't get it out. There was another version of this at one point, but it got deleted one night when my computer did an update belly flop. I may expand more on this drabble set some other time, but for now, the idea's out. Please enjoy and drop a review if you can!

Challenge: Diversity Writing Challenge C60. Write an AU.

Warnings: Character death. Swearing.

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><p>1.<p>

Natsu has no idea how the hell he's alive right now.

He's drenched, clothes torn to all nothingness (except the indestructible muffler), and the Etherion makes his stomach churn. But from looking at the face-down, unconscious blue-haired guy next to him, it's not hard for him to figure it out.

His knees give way and he coughs air and a little blood and debates passing out, but not before he screams, not before he roars like a dragon at the burst of pale blue of light that is fading into mere wisps a distance away. It is not Erza, it is not her, she is still alive, still breathing _somewhere_. He just has to find her, but his body is so tired that he can't move.

He yells for her, still sees her somehow, smiling, acting like she's going to be all right, like she's dying with dignity and really not going anywhere. Damn it, damn her, he was the one who was meant to make her crawl in defeat as his friend. Not this guy, not this dude who made her cry.

She is supposed to be standing here, looking down on him and waiting for him to get up.

He doesn't know how long he screams for. He doesn't know when he passes out.

When he wakes up, she's still not there.

Damn it.


	2. 2

2.

The funeral is cold and wet.

It's also pointless.

There's no body, so she's not dead.

It's Erza, so she's not allowed to die.

He tells them this, screams this. Natsu doesn't cry. If there is one thing Igneel has taught him it's that crying isn't the same as doing and in order to be living you have to be doing something.

And he will. He's going to find Erza, no matter how long it takes, no matter what he has to do. He screams for her, turns to glare at everyone.

Some reward! Seats on a council who treated her like crap. Seats that she'd never actually sit in. She fought, she killed things, she made everyone but her fall and cry.

Erza didn't need some stupid seat.


	3. 3

_**A/N: **_Wow, this got a lot more reception than I expected. Thanks guys! i hope the rest of the story works out for everyone! See you later! Please read and review!

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><p>3.<p>

Happy believes him. Kind of. But it's Happy, so he knows the cat will always believe him in the end.

He's a Dragon Slayer. He's got the best senses around. So he knows his smells. Erza's smell ain't gone.

So neither is she.

Gajeel even says so, and Gajeel's a right pain in the ass.

Gajeel is also a part of the guild, and even not knowing his Erza, he knows she is there. It's a relief off of his shoulders, but he'll never say it.

He doesn't have to, beause Gajeel still helps him (not that he needs anybody's help!) punch Laxus in the face. How can that guy care about who _deserves _Fairy Tail right now? If any one's gonna kick old man Makarov out of office, it's gonna be Natsu. But it's gonna be fair, and it's gonna be cool and awesome and show his strength to everyone.

No one is getting dragged into a fight like that, even if Laxus thinks that's how the game works.

And she'll be watching like sisters do, because he'll have already surpassed her.

Natsu knows the game better. Igneel taught him everything.


	4. 4

**_A/N: _**Well, this will... kind of confirm people's desires? Maybe? Sort of. I'm not making sense. Please read and review!

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><p>4.<p>

Natsu doesn't love her.

The guy in the crystal loves her.

Natsu can see it, now that he has no memories. All they have to do is say her name and Jellal looks up. He's a dog, so much hope and yearning and curiosity. He looks, expecting her to be behind a guard or next to Natsu, but she's not. It's like when Natsu started looking for Igneel.

Except it's worse somehow, because Igneel is a dragon and he's too smart to be caught. Erza shouldn't bother to hide.

He hates seeing the bastard because it's all his fault. Or it should be. But here he is, with a clean slate, locked in a cell for something he doesn't remember doing, and Erza's... somewhere.

Not here, not answering him.

And _damn it_, she should be here.

Because Jellal loves her, and Natsu thinks he kind of gets that.


	5. 5

_**A/N:**_ Hey, sorry for how late this is. Please read and review!

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><p>5.<p>

When Wendy joins the mission, she says they're being followed. Her timid eyes lock on each of them once in a while, and sometimes on nothing at all.

There's nothing there but Erza's scent, of course. That's all there ever is. Even Natsu's learning to just shrug it off and keep his eyes open for when he sees red hair.

Gray looks just as hard and Natsu always wants to punch him because whenever Gray looks depressed, Natsu can't tell which dead person he's thinking of and he shouldn't look like that about their family.


	6. 6

6.

They don't know how they survive without her. Not even Juvia and Laxus or even Gildarts are enough to do everything and Natsu wants that dumb S-rank so he can get away with going on stupidly long missions and being able to do things like that. Thousand year long missions...come on, man!

Somehow they survive, because they're Fairy Tail, they just can't quit. They even survive a pissed off dragon, one who stinks of magic that ain't supposed to be there.

And when they do, there's a little girl standing on the water. She's smiling, but it's an old smile that doesn't fit such a tiny face. She's striding after Mavis and any semblance at modesty is nonexistent, not that Natsu cares.

They know it's her. They know that scarlet hair.

And Erza knows them.


	7. 7

7.

Erza tells them she is the same, even though she is small, and tired, and sometimes out of focus. She tells them that she still loves them all and they are her precious family and she wants to protect them.

During those seven years, she had told them so over and over and over, during the funeral, during the storms and the battles where she couldn't help them. She says their names and weakens any attack she can touch.

She wishes she could have done more. Of course, she doesn't tell them this. Even in this state, she is still an S-class mage after all. She is still their Erza and showing weakness is forbidden

She had cried at the funeral. She had cried because everyone else was crying and that wasn't why she had gone at all, and how could it have been?

She tells them of how she met Mavis and created a body, though incomplete and worn as it is. She can't form armor, or stay awake for long periods of time, and they may forget she's there.

Well, she says that.

She knows they won't forget.

They all notice that she doesn't mention Jellal.


	8. 8

_**A/N:** _Well, this is the last drabble. I hope the fic still makes sense. I have plans to do a couple more things to this verse. Hopefully. Thanks everybody! Please read and review!

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><p>8.<p>

She's seen him, of course. Hard not to. The prison is magic, so it never takes much to float behind him, to hover at his side. When he escapes, she knows, and she wants to know why.

Erza follows him. She follows him wherever he goes while watching her friends. She watches him while she's a crystal in Edolas and he's been stolen to create Nirvana. She follows him while watching her precious friends. She follows him and worries because he's not eating enough or he's whimpering her name in his sleep. She thinks she reformed herself so she could be at his side. She thinks that, and then laughs because she's always at everyone's side.

It's not the same.

It's not the same as when his eyes fill with this indescribable light at the sight of her hair. It's not the same as when he looks at her small self and hugs it. It's not the same as when he cries.

They aren't the same, but it's good. It is all right. Because change is all right.

Someday, it will be better, when he is no longer trapping himself in the dark. She'll wait until then, with Fairy Tail.

She'll wait for him, like they waited for her.


End file.
